Molokans (Russian: молокане for "milk-drinkers") are members of a Christian sect that evolved from "Spiritual Christian" Russian peasants who refused to obey the Russian Orthodox Church. Milk-drinking practice was first sanctioned by the Nestorian Church in the 11th century in order to accommodate the conversion of some 200,000 KeraitTatars, who lived on meat and milk, to Nestorian Christianity.[1] There were approximately 200 fasting days—especially the Great Fast (Lent)—when drinking milk was prohibited by the ecclesiastical authorities of the time. In contrast, they called themselves "true Spiritual Christians", rather than "milk-drinkers", because they did not accept the teachings of the Russian Orthodoxy, nor Catholicism as well as the Protestant sects. They may have been influenced by an earlier religious sect of Armenian "Paulicians", who became known as the "Bogomils" of Thrace, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Serbia.

Unlike most Western European Protestant "reformists", Molokans are "non-conformists" and complete rejectors of Orthodoxy and those with similar doctrines; and like Presbyterians in that they have a council of dominant elders. Though Molokans are somewhat similar to the European Quakers and Mennonites—for their pacifism, communal organization, spiritual meetings, and sub-groupings—they are ethnically much closer to Doukhobors and Sabbatarians (Subbotnik Jews) because they evolved from the same Russian Spiritual Christian movement of Duhovnye Kristyanye and Ikonobortsy (icon-wrestlers), and migrated at around the same time.

During the reign of Ivan the Terrible (1547–1584), Matvei Simyonich Dalmatov, the first martyr of the Russian Molokan faith, split with the Orthodox Church and began to evangelize his family, his master, and local village members in and around the city of Tambov. Dalmatov carried this sectarian belief into Moscow, where a group of Mordvins heard his message and embraced it. Dalmatov was later martyred by Orthodox priests in a monastery prison by wheeling. Molokans were ostracized from Russian society in the 17th century for their refusal to bear arms and for their refusal to assist in any form of military service.

The name "Molokan" was used for the first time in the 1670s, in reference to the people who ignored the 200 fasting days, drinking milk (moloko means "milk" in Russian). Molokans themselves did not completely reject the name—even adding words like "drinking of the spiritual milk of God" (according to I Peter 2:2, "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation").

Heretics were punished in Tsarist Russia. Beatings, torture, kidnapping, imprisonment, banishment, dismembering, killing, and other forms of punishment were inflicted upon those called "Spiritual Christians", as Molokan's called themselves. In the 19th century, the government's policy was to send the heretics away from the center of the country into Caucasus, especially Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, central Asia, and Siberia. In 1833, there was a reported outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon a number of Molokans in the Transcaucasus region. This created a schism between Constants (Postoyaniye) and the newly evolved Molokan Jumpers and Leapers. With what the Molokan Jumpers believed to be a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, this new smaller sect began a revival with intense zeal and reported miracles that purportedly rivaled those of Christ's Apostles. Condemnation from the Constant Molokan sect led to betrayals and imprisonment for many of the Jumpers and Leapers, now called "New Israelites" by their anointed leader Makcim Rudometkin witnessed by Efim G. Klubnikin, a divinely inspired 12 year old boy prophet, which prophesied about a "coming time that would be unbearable and that the time to leave Russia was now". He wrote that "soon the doors will close and leaving Russia would be impossible" which he later wrote in his memoirs in his elder years. During the early 20th century under his fellowship, about 2,000 Molokans (mostly of the Jumpers and Leapers Sect) left for the United States and settled in the Los Angeles area near the area of Boyle Heights, and some other parts of the West Coast and Canada. It is there that they influenced in practice and doctrine a later American Revival called "the PentecostalAzusa Street Revival" near the beginning of the 20th century. The founder of The Full Gospel Business Men's Association associates this PentecostalRevival to the child prophet of the Molokan Jumpers. When they arrived in Los Angeles, they were befriended by local settlement house director Dana W. Bartlett.[2] The Klubnikins continued to be involved in cattle and groceries, as they probably had done in the area of Tambov prior to exile. Others received a land grant from the Mexican government and settled in the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California, Mexico. An even smaller number of Constant Molokans fled Russia and settled mainly in the San Francisco, California and Sacramento, California areas.

Molokans adhere to the Old Testament dietary laws and do not eat pork, shellfish, or other "unclean" foods. Some refuse to serve on juries or file lawsuits against fellow church members. Church services are conducted predominantly in the Russian language, men and women sit apart, and services are usually quite active. Molokan families encourage endogamy.

Molokans are known for having different spellings of last names within the same immediate family.

Molokans are also known for having "first names" that aren't their legal names. Many common "first names" are actually based on nicknames from childhood within the church that stuck. These are not legal names, and as such become names that make tracing family history very difficult. For example "Hazel Valov" became known as "Percy Valov", for being very "persistent".

This naming process can help with family trees, but because so many relatives have similar names, and many nicknames aren't legal names, it can be complex.